Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic: There’s a story behind the name

Here’s an early look at the lead item in my golf column in Thursday’s Sporting Green:

Let’s start with this: It’s perfectly understandable to cringe upon hearing next month’s LPGA event at Lake Merced will be known as the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.

Swinging Skirts? Really? It sounds patronizing and not at all appropriate for a women’s professional golf tournament.

But there’s a story behind the name.

Lydia Ko, Natalie Gulbis and Yani Tseng (left to right) are among the players coming to Lake Merced for the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic. (Chronicle photos)

About five years ago, several deep-pocketed Taiwanese golfers formed an unofficial social group. They loved the game, played at the same club and began wearing matching clothes on their golf outings. The group started with 10 people and soon grew to 30 and then 60, including men and women.

They had grand ambitions to grow the women’s game in Taiwan, where golf was gaining popularity as Yani Tseng soared toward No. 1 in the world rankings. The group became a private, non-profit organization and decided it needed a catchy name to sponsor a Taiwan LPGA event.

“Because golf originated in Scotland, and back then they wore kilts, they wanted to honor this tradition,” said Carol Su, managing director/Taiwan for IMG Golf. “That’s how they started to wear kilts and call the group, ‘Swinging Skirts.’ They basically wanted to honor the origins of the game.”

This seems genuine and noble, but the dynamics changed when Swinging Skirts expanded its vision and sought to grow the game globally. After holding an annual event on the Taiwanese tour the past three years, it joined forces with the Florida-based LPGA – home of the world’s top players – to co-sanction the 2014 tournament and move it to the United States.

That meant making the name fly in an entirely different culture. Kevin Hopkins, the tournament’s executive director, knew this might be a challenge. He realized there are negative connotations to calling someone a “skirt” in the U.S.

The most relevant perspective belongs to the players, so we turned to Sacramento native Natalie Gulbis.

“You don’t forget the name – that’s what makes it so cool,” Gulbis said. “I’ve never seen them not wearing the skirts in Taiwan, at the British Open, at the U.S. Open. … I’m comfortable with it. They’re going back to the old Scottish days.”

Sure enough, Swinging Skirts chairman Johnson Wang wore a colorful kilt Monday at Lake Merced, as did Taiwanese ambassador David Lee. Wang illustrated the group’s passion when he said, “Playing golf is like breathing air for Swinging Skirts members.”

Do not diminish the significance of a title sponsor with this kind of energy and money. The LPGA vanished from the Bay Area the past three years precisely because a title sponsor could not be found. Players wanted a tournament, as did the tour, but someone needed to supply the money.

Swinging Skirts showed up with $1.8 million in hand.

Next month’s tournament is a landmark step for the group, to stage its event on U.S. soil. A few big-name players showed up for the tournament in Taiwan – Lydia Ko won there in December, with Tseng and Paula Creamer also in the field – but all of the world’s top 10 players have given verbal commitments for the Lake Merced edition.